As Mr Howard turned up the rhetoric on the free trade deal - describing it as "the most important trade agreement that Australia has signed in more than a generation" - a leading campaigner against the deal revealed that the Government had signed a pledge to the US Government to privatise Telstra as part of the agreement.

Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network convenor Pat Ranald said Australian trade negotiators had confirmed that a side letter sent to the US Government stated that the Australian Government intended to privatise the rest of Telstra. The Government's summary of the agreement mentioned the letter without revealing its contents.

Dr Ranald said it was objectionable that the Government could make such a pledge. "Such decisions should be democratically decided by Parliament, not promised to another Government as part of a trade deal," she said.